Who wants to see Moonis Elahi arrested?

ISLAMABAD: Who is eager to see federal minister Moonis Elahi behind bars? A leading anti-graft agency was allegedly told to arrest Moonis Elahi, a federal minister and son of PMLQ leader and Punjab Speaker Pervez Elahi. The reason? Either someone in the government wants to put pressure on the PMLQ or there is some other issue involved.

Interestingly, the government agency that was told to arrest the federal minister, had shared the information with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat. The agency was told there is no pending case against the younger Chaudhry from Gujrat, yet there is a direction to get Moonis arrested.

Sources close to the Chaudhrys told The News that the move to arrest Moonis Elahi came to the notice of the PML-Q leadership a couple of days after the minister in a speech had assured Prime Minister Imran Khan of his party's support and asked the premier to tell PTI supporters not to panic (‘ghabrana nahin’).

The sources said that later Moonis Elahi was asked by an important government functionary: “why don’t you join the PTI?”.

The PMLQ, which is an ally of the government, appears to be drifting away from the ruling coalition and is presently engaged in detailed discussions with the opposition to become part of the no-trust move against the Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The PMLQ has still not taken any decision, but it seems to be tilting towards the opposition. The Q-League’s support is considered critical for both sides in the no-trust divide not because of its numbers in the National Assembly but because of its long and deep connections with the establishment.

However, what is strange is that when the PTI government direly needed the support of all its allies to foil the opposition’s no-trust motion, certain voices from within the government started criticizing the PMLQ in public.

Initially, it was interior minister Sheikh Rasheed, who attacked the PMLQ and said that a political party with five seats is blackmailing the government to secure the office of the Punjab chief minister. Moonis Elahi, in a tweet, issued an equally lethal rejoinder to Sheikh Rasheed.

Later, Sheikh Rashid said that he had randomly responded to a question that those having four to five seats were blackmailing the government. He said that his remarks were taken out of context. Shaikh added that he had stated multiple times that he was indebted to the late Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi, the patriarch of the Chaudhrys. He also prayed for the health of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. “I will never speak against them,” the interior minister said, adding that his remarks were of a general nature rather than directed towards anyone.

Responding to the remarks of Sheikh Rashid, the water minister Moonis Elahi said that he was thankful to Rashid for clearing the misunderstanding. “I respect you, in the same manner that you respect our elders,” he tweeted.

After this storm had abated, the very next day Asad Umar publicly discussed the PML-Q and said it was a party of just a few constituencies in Punjab. The PML-Q, which was to announce its decision about whether to support or oppose the no-trust move, would now reveal its cards after March 23 to allow the the OIC conference to go off smoothly in the national interest. The other allies of the government are also expected to delay their decisions till the conclusion of the OIC conference in Islamabad.